Hearings for Acehnese activists held very late

Hearings for Acehnese activists held very late

Damar Harsanto
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The hearings for two Acehnese activists at South Jakarta
District Court were, unusually, held very late on Monday,
sparking suspicion that it was part of a ploy to avoid media
coverage.

The first, for defendant Taufik Abdullah, 30, commenced at
3:15 p.m., when a defense witness gave his testimony.

Taufik is accused of illegal possession of explosives linked
to the bomb blast at Iskandar Muda student house on Jl. Perahu
No.1, Guntur subdistrict, Setiabudi district, South Jakarta.

Presided over by judge Hesmu Purwanto, the trial was held in a
courtroom, where the hearing for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
activist, Nashiruddin Ahmad, was scheduled to take place.

Nashiruddin, 41, was chairman of the Joint Committee of
Security Affairs of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the talks
between the Indonesian government and GAM on July, 1, 2001 in
Geneva, Switzerland.

Nashiruddin, his lawyer Garda Sembiring and prosecutor Mawardi
Adam, as well as others, including media reporters, were ready at
the courtroom when they were asked to leave as the room was
required for Taufik's hearing.

Grumbling, a TV reporter complained about the late hearing,
suspicious that the court was trying to avoid media coverage.

"It (the court) must know well that our time here is limited
by reporting deadlines," she said.

Nashiruddin was charged with passport forgery. If found
guilty, he could be sentenced to a maximum seven-year jail
sentence.

His trial, presided over by judge I Dewa Gde Putra Jadnya, was
held at about 4 p.m. and later moved to another courtroom to hear
witness testimonies.

Taufik's lawyer, Taufik Basari of Jakarta Legal Aid Institute,
suspected that the court had deliberately held the hearing very
late in order to avoid media coverage.

He said he was told that the hearing was late as all rooms
were in use.

However, many reporters who arrived at the venue after 10 a.m.
found that several rooms were. The court's main room, the Garuda
room, in which Taufik's hearing was held, remained closed until
12:30 p.m.

Garda said the legal processing of Nashiruddin was, in fact, a
political rather than a criminal matter.

"The Nashiruddin case has been politicized by the government,"
Garda said.